Pressure sensitive adhesives (PSAs) are an important class of materials.
In recent years, there has been a significant increase in the use of plastics, vulcanized rubbers, and thermoplastic vulcanizates (“TPV”) in the automotive, appliance and electronics markets. Generally, these materials combine the desirable characteristics of vulcanized rubber with the processing ease of thermoplastics. However, bonding to these and other low surface energy substrates currently requires priming the substrate surface prior to bonding with a pressure sensitive adhesive (“PSA”). The priming process can be expensive and labor intensive, and may present environmental concerns.
Accordingly, industry would find advantage in new pressure sensitive adhesives that can exhibit good adhesion to a variety of substrates, such as low surface energy substrates.